Mother’s Trial Tactics And Income Weighted in Properly Denying Fees.
Wood v. Fard, Case No. G048418 (4th Dist., Div. 3 May 30, 2014), authored by Justice Aronson on behalf of a 3-0 panel, contains a nice discussion of the standards to be used in awarding attorney’s fees in child custody disputes under the Uniform Parentage Act, Fam. Code, §§ 7640, 7605. In essence, this is a discretionary fee-granting statute, containing many of the sample principles underlying needs-based fees under sections 2030/2032. (Kevin Q. v. Lauren W., 195 Cal.App.4th633, 642-645 (2011) [4th Dist., Div. 3].) Even a litigant’s trial tactics can be considered in the mix. Here, boiled down, mother was found to have taken unreasonable actions in disputes over the medical care for the child and she had enough income to fund legal efforts given that ex-husband was ordered to/did pay some prior fees towards her cause. Based on that, the lower court’s decision to deny a fee request at later stages was found to be no abuse of discretion under the Uniform Parentage Act.